Fender Masterbuilt '51 Nocaster Thinline — John Cruz 2009

John Cruz is a legend in the Fender Custom Shop. Over decades he built some of the most sought-after instruments there are, and among collectors his guitars are the reference for ageing and craft. A Cruz masterbuilt from 2009 isn't an ordinary Custom Shop instrument, then — it's a piece of Custom Shop history.

The Nocaster owes its name to an oddity: in 1951 Fender had to drop the Broadcaster model name because Gretsch held the rights to it, and for a short while the guitars went out with no name on the headstock at all. That transition period is now among the most sought-after of all, because instruments from the time have a particularly dry, direct voice and the famous blackguard pickguards.

What makes this one special on top of that is the thinline construction. A thinline body on a Nocaster is a distinctly rare combination. The chambers take weight out of the instrument, but more importantly they open the tone up: the mids get livelier, the core sounds woodier and more breathing, and it responds with an ease a solid body can't match. You get that percussive blackguard character, but with more air around it.

It still sounds like a proper Nocaster, though. At the bridge, the wiry, twangy bite with the fast attack that fights its way through any mix; at the neck, a round, warm tone with a surprising amount of substance; and in between, the combination that has worked for over seventy years. These guitars are tools rather than ornaments, and that's exactly how they sound.

Then there's the ageing Cruz became famous for. Every mark sits where it would have appeared on a genuine original.

A blackguard classic from a master's hands, in a very rare configuration, from Ede's Private Stock.